New Worlds
by Unrevealed
Summary: After the events of Nanoha A's, the Asura departs to investigate a curious anomaly. What will they find?
1. Prologue

**New Worlds**

_Prologue_

Dustbin

While waiting for Pacifica to retrieve the supplies for tending to Dragunov, Shannon reflected on the latest report from Zefiris. Seness and Eirote had done amazing work, with Natalie's help. Seness had remodeled Scarlet into a hybrid military/civilian organization.

She kept most military technology for herself, away from the politicians and royalty of the world, and mostly focused on rebuilding Skid and uplifting society as a whole. She had reactivated several "satellites", some kind of devices that float high up in the sky. These allowed for accurate weather forecasts up to two weeks in advance for the entirety of Dustbin. Her teams had found, excavated, salvaged, and in one case, managed to reactivate ancient installations all over the planet. Hospitals, universities, administration centers, factories, and she had been so excited when they recovered functional aircraft from that transit hub.

Life in the rural areas was changing a little bit. People could obtain "phones", which let them speak with anyone else with a "phone", anywhere in the world, at any time. They were still expensive, but many rural communities now had solar power systems, which allowed people to charge those "phones", and use or charge other electrical devices. Large farm owners were still working with Seness to devise systems to drastically reduce labor on their farms.

Life in the big and capital cities was changing more drastically. Courtesy of Skid's power plant, Sauer was now wired up in a city-wide electrical grid. The city was bright at night. Industrial facilities had light, and electric and pneumatic tools. Scarlet had built power plants near several other capital cities, which were undergoing similar transitions. People from all over Dustbin flocked to the first modern hospital, built around salvaged equipment from the ancient era. Diseases, conditions, and injuries which could not formerly be diagnosed, let alone treated, were now being corrected.

The brightest minds in the world soaked up incredible amounts of knowledge at Scarlet's university, which educated people in the society and technology of the ancient world. It was an incredibly dynamic environment, with course material changing week-by-week as new discoveries were made. Most alumni ultimately ended up working with Scarlet to further their recovery of the ancient world. Scarlet sold "books" that could display any of the thousands of titles in their database at any time. There had been no progress in finding a way to restore the existence of Providence-era magic, though there was much excitement at the prospect of developing civilian-scale Gigas units for construction work.

Skid itself had been partially restored, raised from the ocean floor, with many of it's non-combat systems at least somewhat operational. Natalie's avatar no longer flickered on the brink of non-existence, though there was still concern about her long-term future in Skid's brain. Seness now had command of a dozen Gigas-type units, in various states of disrepair, housed in one of Skid's hangars.

Their father would have been happy to have seen this world.

Patrol ship Asura, breaking orbit of non-administered planet 97

Admiral Lindy looked around the conference room, confirming everyone was present - Nanoha, Fate, Arf, Chrono, and senior bridge staff. "Let's get started" she said.

"I hope you all enjoyed New Years. Nanoha is a new addition to the ship's crew, and I hope we'll all work well together. Hayate and her Guardians are being allowed to stay behind until Hayate is on her feet. Before proceeding to HQ, we have a very curious job to do. Six months ago, the Time-Space Administration Bureau detected small dimensional disturbances in a world not far from here. There's no record of there ever being anything of interest at these coordinates. Long-distance viewing revealed uninteresting void, as was expected. Four months ago, a re-view showed a shockingly different picture."

The conference room table displayed two views of an Earth-like planet, plus a close-up of a built-up area.

"As you can see, there is now a planet here. There is obvious human habitation – roads, fields and cities, somehow confined to this region over here. You can understand our confusion – not only why is there now a planet here, but why is human activity on it so curiously restricted? The rest of the planet is completely untouched."

The display on the table shifted to night-time views.

"It's so dark" noted Fate.

"Indeed" replied Lindy. "This world appears to be at culture level 2, with roads and cities, but no advanced technology, electricity or magic. We are able to sense Linker Cores, not to an exact location but a general idea of numbers and strength. This world has absolutely no response from a Linker scan. Here's the view from three months ago"

The table display updated, showing little change except for a large object off the coast of one of the cities

Nanoha commented "That doesn't look like a boat".

"It isn't. Without advanced technology like gravitics control, there's absolutely no good reason to build an ocean-going vessel in that kind of shape, and lots of very good reasons not to. Have a look at the density measurement - It's built of something much heavier than conventional metals, and there's no way it's buoyant – something is holding it above the water."

The display updated again.

"Two months ago. Not much visible change during the day, but look at the night-time view"

Everyone around the table gasped. The ship was lit like a rave party, and many of the large roads in the nearby city were bright.

"There's more. One month ago, night-time images. Three large population centers are now electrified. Here's the real kicker – a daytime image captured three days ago"

The table updated to show a zoom-in on the outskirts of one of the cities, with some kind of sleek aircraft travelling inbound.

"So. From empty void to what looks like a level 3 world, or possibly level 4 for that airplane, in the space of six months... Absolutely absurd. Headquarters has had a small team investigating the Infinity Library regarding this issue for some weeks now, and they have discovered _nothing_, which is almost unheard of. Our job is to find out what the heck is going on. Cross-dimensional tampering of some kind is extremely likely."

The captain turned to the senior navigator. "When do we arrive?"

"We exit dimensional space in about 30 minutes."

"Alright, Exit dimensional space and enter orbit over the inhabited area. I want everyone in this room on the bridge in 20 minutes. Let's see if we can figure this out."


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1 – A Warm Welcome_

Shannon looked up at the unexpected tinkle-_thud_ sound. Zefiris had dropped what she was carrying and was standing still, staring up at the sky towards Sauer.

The four watch officers on Skid's bridge stared at each other in bewilderment, as the alarm continued to sound. After turning back to her console, the engineering officer reported "The computer is attempting to activate all combat systems, and most of them are failing out. Primary power has already reported as non-functional, as has the defense system. Something's going on in the hangar!"

"The Gigas units with functioning command and control systems are powering up to combat readiness!" exclaimed the operations officer. He hit the ship-wide intercom. "All pilots report to the hangar at once! Bring your machines under control!"

The communications officer reported "The ship is broadcasting on the old tactical network. Skid is reporting it's designation, location, and inability to engage the target due to systems dysfunction…. That's it! Look at the priority feed from observation satellite four!"

Off to the side of the command platform, a video feed popped up. There was some kind of circular rift in space, with an object emerging from it.

The watch commander asked "What the hell is that?! …. What kind of scale are we looking at? How big is that thing?"

The engineering officer shifted to the console next to him and started fiddling with it "Uh… I think…. It's smaller than we are, but not by much."

The communications officer brought up a globe hologram, with a pinpoint on the other side of the planet "An unknown installation is broadcasting on the tactical network. It's identifying as planetary defense station seventeen, reporting unable to engage target due to systems dysfunction and lack of line-of-sight"

The object had now fully emerged, and the rift in space closed behind it. The engineering officer noted the object was in geostationary orbit, just about right on top of them.

Another blip appeared on the globe, this time to the north-west of Dustbin. "Transmission from planetary defense station zero-four, reporting unable to engage target due to systems dysfunction."

Seness sprinted through the bridge doors, "What the hell is going on?!"

Again from the communications officer: "Transmission from dragon serial twenty-six. Zefiris is broadcasting a command authority assertion."

Natalie appeared off the side of the command platform. "An object has emerged in orbit of this world. It arrived the same way as our ancient enemies. The remnants of the old planetary defense framework are activating to destroy it. Zefiris is trying to bring the system under control."

Zefiris spun around, staring intently at the horizon to the south.

A new blip appeared on the globe, several thousand kilometers to the south-south-east of Dustbin. "Transmission from station eleven, it's rejecting Zefiris' assertion and engaging the target!"

Shannon was alarmed at Zefiris' bizarre behavior, and turned to follow her line of sight. He was just in time to see a bright green line trace from the horizon towards the capital.

* * *

The observation deck of the bridge was fully populated, as the crew was expecting to start investigating this world immediately. The navigator announced their transition to normal space.

An alarmed shout from the observation deck: "What the?! We're being painted – there's a satellite observing us with multiple radar bands and lidar. I think I see a camera lens too. It's transmitting a powerful radio signal towards two other satellites and the surface of the planet."

An image of the satellite appeared to one side of the bridge.

"Well, that's a surprise" said Lindy. "They've only had electricity for four months. Where did that toy come from?"

The observation deck reported similar radio broadcasts from the ship on the surface. Now that they had on-the-scene imaging, they could see it was little more than a ruin, with obvious missing sections and chunks of hull.

An internal view popped up, showing monstrous forms in a hangar. There were a few people, some with tools, all looking around a bit confused.

"Now what the heck are those?" asked Nanoha.

The navigator reported that dimensional space exit was complete, and they were now in orbit.

A disturbing wilderness view popped up, with the ground visibly shifting and birds fleeing the trees. "Strange events at a site south of the inhabited area. Roughly one square kilometer has surface temperature elevated over 50 degrees, and there is localized seismic activity"

The side of a mountain popped up. The observation deck reported a radio transmission from a site on the far side of the planet.

"Those appear to be piloted machines. I see a life-support system. They also have components that kind of resemble a gravity-control movement system."

The observation deck reported another radio transmission, this time in the middle of a desert to the north of the populated area.

The southern site continued to behave strangely. The heated area was now up to 150 degrees above ambient, and it was hard to see what was going on through the haze and steam. The shifting land was starting to reveal a rotating structure underneath. Birds were dropping out of the sky.

A view of a strangely dressed girl with long hair and impossibly starched hair ribbon popped up. She was staring directly into the bridge viewpoint. "Radio transmission from…. her?" The officer sounded confused.

A protrusion was emerging from the rotating structure, pushing tonnes of dirt and vegetation out of the way.

Another officer followed up "Multiple strange returns from this subject. I think she's not human, possibly not even biological. She's looking straight at us."

The girl on the video feed turned to look away from the ship. The structure and protrusion were no longer moving. Lindy's eyes widened as she realized she was staring straight down a barrel, and it was starting to glow a dim green.

The observation deck started to report a new radio transmission, but was interrupted by the captain shouting "Defense sys –"

_green_. The entire bridge was flooded with blindingly bright green light.


End file.
